


Every first is a new beginning

by chaos_is_welcome



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: F/M, Firsts, Introspection, TLKFFF2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25235875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaos_is_welcome/pseuds/chaos_is_welcome
Summary: Finan has lived a lot of life in his twenty some years. Christ, has he lived through a lot. He's been married to a princess, hunted Viking raiders in his homeland, survived four years in chains, and stood in a shield wall in a land he never would have imagined calling home.  His body is a map of scars that tell stories he'd rather forget. He would have thought he'd lived every experience that anyone would want to live, and a hell of a lot most people wouldn't.Finan experiences some firsts when he meets Eadith. For the TLKFFF Round #2, prompt #36.
Relationships: Eadith/Finan (The Last Kingdom)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48
Collections: The Last Kingdom Fanfic Fest





	Every first is a new beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Never get tired of these two. 
> 
> This is a quick write...there are so many amazing prompts this round! So pardon any errors.

Finan has lived a lot of life in his twenty some years. Christ, has he lived through a lot. He's been married to a princess, hunted Viking raiders in his homeland, survived four years in chains, and stood in a shield wall in a land he never would have imagined calling home. His body is a map of scars that tell stories he'd rather forget. He would have thought he'd lived every experience that anyone would want to live, and a hell of a lot most people wouldn't.

He'd kissed, he'd humped, he'd been married, he'd been betrayed, he'd thought he was going to meet his God more times than he cared to count. He's stood on the beach as a free man, and for the first time appreciated what that word means...free. 

He's loved. He loves Uhtred and Sihtric and Osferth, and this rough-shorn family they have built through years of fighting impossible odds. He would do anything for these men that have become his family, far more than he would have ever done for his own bastard family. He's even come close to betraying his God and King Alfred in following Uhtred. He truly hadn't thought there was anything else out there for him, no other experiences to be had. Finan will fight, he will drink ale, he will hump beautiful women, and someday he will die. There doesn't need to be any more than that.

Until he's standing along a river filled with dead bodies, and the beautiful red-head he hasn't been at all sure about since she has joined their odd party of children and warriors throws her hands in the air and swears on the Bible that he brother had killed the turd King Aethelred. They'd been running with the wee Aelfwynn and Aethelstan through the Mercian countryside, evading an arranged marriage for the little girl, and now their backs are against a river they can't force, for fear of the dead floating there, and they are blocked in the front by Eardwulf and his men. Finan has his cross in his mouth, because he needs his hands free for his weapons and he doesn't see how they are going to get out of this current situation without a little divine intervention. Aethelstan shifts behind him, and he tells him to run for the woods when the fighting starts as Sihtric passes the boy the blade he keeps at his back. But then Eadith steps up and he's surprised as she makes her declaration, even as her brother calls her a whore. The danger rides off without any need of his sword, and isn't that just a first. After that, he is no longer wary of her, he's interested. And this, too, is something new.

When she saves their asses again, cutting them all down from the tree that Haeston and his men have hung them from, it's another first. Finan can't say he's ever seen a woman with no fighting skills single-handedly rescue five seasoned warriors from a perilous situation that had seemed hopeless. Interest turns to respect, and as they run to Wessex, quite literally, Finan wonders in what other ways Eadith will surprise them.

**

Finan is a man who speaks his mind, and he rarely regrets keeping quiet, because it's just not something he does. Yet as Aethelstan tells them he had not seen Eadith while being held in Winchester, Finan regrets that he did not do something, say something, to keep Eadith from going inside. It's been thirty days, and now that Aethelstan can tell them she never managed to contact Aelswith or Aethelstan, Finan wonders what the point was. He should have stopped her, should have argued instead of just telling her she didn't need to go. He gazes at the besieged walls, where Uhtred has now gone and where Eadith may very well no longer be alive, and feels an unfamiliar hollowness in his chest.

**  
Finan does not drop his weapons in the heat of battle, and certainly not in a shield wall. When a warrior relaxes his hold on shield and sword in a shield wall, he opens not only himself to attack, but also the men to his left and right. The shield wall is no place for a man to lower his guard or his weapons, for that is how men die. Yet when Sihtric nudges him, pulling his attention to the gulf opening between themselves and the Danish fighters, that is exactly what he does. Eadith is there, face down and dirty and trampled and he drops his shield and the sword in his hand as he leaps toward her. A Dane steps up to him, challenges him, but all he can do is say please. When has Finan ever said please to the enemy? The same time he dropped his weapons in a shield wall--never. She makes a noise when he reaches her, and thank Jesus she is alive, and Finan pulls back with her in his arms and Sihtric and Osferth make room for his retreat and God love them, they close up his place in the shield wall and it's the first time he's left his men, his friends in a dire situation like that. They understand, and she is alive, and he is thankful.

Finan is good with women, but when she declares there is no one left that cares for her, tears pooling in her blue-green eyes as he wraps her ribs, Finan is at a loss as to how to respond. He's on uneven ground from then on, because he wants her, not for a night or a week, and that too is a first. He does not know how to proceed. She talks about sailing to Frankia, but somehow Osferth, God bless the baby monk, convinces her to come to Coccham instead and suddenly, there is possibly and uncertainty in Finan's life.

**

Finan does not wait to kiss a woman he wants, but with Eadith it takes forever, and when she finally kisses him, it's on Coccham's dock under the pale moon, and her skin is alabaster as she tilts her head up to him, her hair unbound. Unmarried women are supposed to keep their hair unbound, but Eadith's is always braided, and Finan finds himself running his fingers through her hair as he scoops himself down to meet her mouth and he revels in the flavor of her, cinnamon and vanilla. Her mouth opens to him and his tongue plunders her mouth as he has plundered for silver at times with Uhtred and she moans and he is lost, because he never wants to stop doing things that make her make that sound. Her tongue invades his mouth and then he's the one that's moaning, and Finan knows then that life will never be dull with this woman. So he kisses her until they are both breathless, and then he walks her home and says good night. She's worth the wait.

**

He's never cared before about a woman seeing his back. He humps them and then they go their separate ways, so he has never wasted time thinking about what a woman may think of them. With Eadith, though, he worries. His back is a ruin of red, rough tissue, and he doesn't want her to think less of him. It happens by accident. He is thrown from a green horse and doesn't roll away from the hooves fast enough, and she insists on seeing to him. She helps him take off his shirt and she inhales sharply, her eyes wide as she sees his scars. She recovers quickly and examines his ribs and the hoove marks that are already turning black and blue across his abdomen. She wraps his ribs, and when she's done, she softly trails her fingers over the deepest scar. Sverri gave it to him after their failed escape attempt in Iceland. Halig had been hanged from the front of the ship and both Finan and Uhtred had been lashed, and then they had rowed while Halig had screamed. He's surprised when he feels her soft lips meet his shoulder, and he feels a wetness in his eyes. He is shocked that he wants to tell her about all of it, so he does. He feels like he did standing on that beach in North Umbria...free for the first time in a long while. 

Everything with Eadith is new and uncharted, and Finan learns that perhaps there are still many things left for him to experience. He has a great deal of living to do, and she is beside him through it all.


End file.
